What’s more likely happening here is that there are those (Rush) who would like a brokered convention to let movers and shakers decide a non-Romney nominee.

In the past we would have laughed a big hearty ho-ho-hwaw type chuckle. These days, it’s just more of a “snort”. Hedging our bets, laugh-wise.

***

And then there is the even goofier “Obama drops out and Hillary drops in” suggestion. We save our mighty chuckle for that. But we found much more plausible the suggestion that there was some type of deal back in ’08 where when 2012 cam around, Hillary and Veep Biden would switch roles.

Seem awful Machiavellian. Straight face over here.

***

We were perusing the internets last night and came upon these “Gwen Howard for Congress” kickoff pics.

So can someone please explain her campaign logo to us? It’s like two parts of a recycling image, but not really, but it’s “up”, but different. We don’t get it.

Help us out here.

***

So there’s still time to buy stuff on Amazon (via Leavenworth Street’s links).

From now until 10 pm (Central) tomorrow (December 21), you can get free 2-day shipping on all eligible Kindle devices – including the kick-ass Kindle Fire.

You have a few other choices at this point as well: Do 1 or 2 day shipping. OR, just send that sort-of-special someone an Amazon gift card! Waaaaaay better than the Lowes or Best Buy one. Way more choices, easier to do. All of the above.

Your nephew will be pumped, annnnd you send a little anonymous love L.St’s way, at no extra charge to you.

31 comments

If they switch jobs, will Hillary get Joe’s hair plugs? It seems only fair. But do we really need a SoS with a foot permanently wedged between his teeth?

I wonder when Nelson signed on to the kickback, did he realize two years on PPACA would have sunk to 29% positive in national polls?

In a similar vein, Warren Buffett is on MarketWatch’s ’10 biggest losers of 2011′ list. Berkshire has lagged the market, the BAC purchase is looking more misguided every day, and Munich Re got hit big by the Thailand floods.

While I appreciate the “politics as usual” and “stop the backroom deals” angle of the advertisement, ultimately I don’t think this “cornhusker kickback” slogan is going to dent Ben’s chances at all. Because what’s the logical response, from his side? Yep, I refused to vote for that bill until there was a compromise that allowed better Medicare funding, and restrictions on funding for abortions! Hmmm. Doesn’t sound all that bad to typical Nebraskans, most of whom (seriously now, has anyone polled on this to see whether the strategy is going to fly?) probably don’t even know exactly what the “kickback” included. If the Republican reply is that we didn’t want a sweetheart deal for Nebraskans, well… good luck selling that to Nebraskans, who already feel that they miss out on the federal dollar compared to other states.

So, what’s a better strategy, you ask? Why not just tie Ben directly to Obamacare itself? I’d venture that Obamacare in general is much less popular in Nebraska than the idea of a “cornhusker kickback”. Are you going to be able to keep your current health plan? Are you going to have to contend with the insurance exchanges? Or perhaps even the simple principle of the thing: why should the government be able to force you to purchase insurance? In general, Obama is not popular in Nebraska and he’s much less popular even in the 2nd district than he was in 08. Tying Nelson to Obama is the way to go, I’d say. However much Republicans want it to be a winner, the Keystone just isn’t going to be a campaign issue they can use successfully in this state. Why not instead focus on the administration’s utter abdication of the immigration issue?

OM,
Under your “scenario”, you just wouldn’t get to drive a car.
Under ObamaCare, if you don’t buy insurance — it’s either your money, or I would guess at some point, jail.
Constitution doesn’t say driving is a right.
Pesky about “Liberty”, though…
SS

Last time I checked, if you didn’t buy auto insurance and you choose to drive on public roads you can be fined if you get caught. With Obamacare, if you don’t buy health insurance the IRS will penalize you. So in one case, you get to make the choice and in the other the commies like OhMander mandate you buy something. Next mandate will be tofu turkey for Christmas dinner or the IRS will come calling…

When Nelson signed onto the Cornhusker Kickback, he and Tim Becker thought they were doing something which the Heineman and the state would embrace. They thought we’d forget about all the bad stuff, including the abortion language, and be distracted by the bright shiny Medicare money.

Sweeper, I heard Limbaugh yesterday and wouldn’t say HE suggested a write-in campaing for Jeb Bush. Rather, he quoted Steve Moore from the Cato Institute, who made that suggestion in only a semi-serious manner. And Rush further mocked the idea by pointing out a Palin write-in was equally plausible (that is, not plausible at all).

As for Gwen Howard’s logo, yes it is a bit unusual, which might be the point. Around here green is usually an attempt to portray Irishness and kiss up to the Catholics who used to dominate South Omaha. From this pic I see that a Douglas county commissioner, Marc Kraft, and local AFL CIO boss Terry Moore are on board with her campaign. Which means they are NOT on board with John Ewing’s campaign. Wonder how other Democrat pols will line up in that primary…not that either of them have much of a chance against Terry.

Can I take credit for that 2 year anniversary promotion? I believe I mentioned that in an earlier post……..I could use some money to spend at Rachel’s Place with Eddie who is coming back for the holidays.

Quick question – how many of you people are seriously getting forced to buy insurance? My guess is none because you already have it. No one is making me drive, and no one is making you buy health insurance. Spare me the phoney outrage on behalf of the uninsured people that lack the good judgement to accept help when it’s offered.

Only in the mind of a liberal can a $9,500/year penalty for not buying health insurance be considered “help”. Oh, and thanks for pointing out that folks who can’t afford health insurance have poor judgment…I’m sure they’ll appreciate the compliment.

Seriously, which is it? Is Obamacare “socialized medicine” that offers ill-gotten health care to people that don’t deserve it at the expense of the hard-working, tax-paying, freedom-loving ‘Mericans such as yourself, or is it a $9,500 annual burden to those that can’t afford health insurance, don’t want it, and shouldn’t have to have it? I would suggest it’s neither.

The auto insurance requirement is a STATE mandate, not a federal one. Having said that, I do not know if there are any state rulings saying you cannot mandate that citizens buy a consumer product. Not all states require it, and the minimum varies by state.

Even though I like the foreboding nature of the video; for me the two year anniversary was all about getting kicked in the rear on the abortion language. For months we had been lead to believe that they were taking seriously National Right to Life’s input into the abortion language being batted back and forth, before and after the acceptable Stupak language passed the house in November of 2009. I think I and NRLC leaders had at least three sit-down meetings with Sen. Nelson from summer on. Burned into my memory is Sen. Nelson’s call to me on Friday night Dec. 18th with Tim Becker in tow, during a break in “deliberations” in Harry Reid’s office with Sens. Schumer and Boxer. I knew things had gone south early in that week when Becker stopped being as accessible and Sen. Nelson’s key aide whom I had been dealing with had to keep making excuses as to why I couldn’t get answers. I recall being told that the “new” abortion language was even better than Stupak’s. Imagine that. As I scratched notes on the backs of envelopes and anything else I could find I also remember coming back at their statements with “why would Boxer accept this “new” abortion language if it’s Stupak-plus?” It was one phone call he had to make to be able to go back to Reid’s office and seal the deal. I didn’t sign off on it; protesting that as we had for months been able to vet and see language, I could not vet this language without NRLC’s federal lobbyist on board. It was made very clear to me that the phone call was not about seeking consensus but letting me and Nebraska Right to Life know that a new deal had been struck and that we simply needed to continue trusting Sen. Nelson’s judgement on this. Was he really of the belief that his new abortion language would not inculcate abortion funding into the fabric of Obamacare or did he make a calculated political decision to throw his lot in with Obama (and the two White House aides ensconced in Reid’s office) and figure pro-life Nebraskans would forgive and forget all later? All I can say is two years later pro-life Nebraskans have not forgotten that after months of being told we had a seat at the table with Sen. Nelson; in the final hours it was the abortion language that got the ditch before he ran with Harry Reid to the Senate floor on Saturday morning as the 60th vote, ushering in Obamacare.

Julie: YOU WON! No federal funding for abortions. What’s your continued beef? I get it that you didn’t get what you thought you deserved. But Nelson (whom I never defend) supplied only one vote. He is only one member of a body of 100!

Julie, pretending you’re anything but a puppet of the Republican party is a joke. I would expect if you were bi-partisan you’d be hammering on Romneycare in Massachusetts, which (unlike Obamacare reformed by Ben Nelson) did provide funding for abortions. You can’t be taken seriously by any non-partisan pro-life voter, you’re no different than a common criminal.

I usually don’t listen to RTLers as they tend to pound that same drum on that one issue. But I found that first person account of the deal Nelson cut with Reid on Obamacare riveting. In political blogs full of unfounded opinions, this account is unusually substantial. It shows Nelson as being unprincipled in the extreme. For Nelson himself long called abortion child murder. He carried the RTL standard for years. This is Nelson flipping on something way beyond hypocrisy. This was not just an issue to Nelson, it was child murder. But I guess it really wasn’t that to Nelson else he’d not have settled the deal. And as Julie described it, you could feel her pain as the knife went into her back. You don’t have to agree with her on the issue to know what is like to be awed by such a display of raw unprincipled political expediency.

The recycle image on Gwen’s logo is not too surprising. Her past colors were green and white. This was very Paul Wellstone-ish and an obvious nod of allegiance to her ASPFC union brothers and sisters who share the same color.

This year’s logo of green and blue are very eco-friendly and environmentially conscious. Gwen is very cozy with and chumps with her UNO, Elmwood park district’s many bikers, walkers, recyclers. I believe Mark Welsch lives a few houses down from her. Who needs Vermont when you can get hemp clothing on sale in Dundee?

I found the photo a very interesting one. For on one side stood Terry Moore head of the local Afl-CiO and Gwen on the other. Moore and labor wanted the Keystone Pipeline, while the Jane Kleebs of the party wanted it stopped for eco-concerns. And how did Gwen decide on that issue? She didn’t. She sat on the fence and tried to keep her Rainbow coalition together.

Go Gwen Go Gwen! I think Gwen will win the Democratic nomination = she is more connected to the base of Democratic special interest groups. She will stand up for the 99%, gay marriage, transgender and bisexual students, Planned Parenthood, has Warren Buffett as neighbor, Gary Desilvestro and Clear Communications will get the word out, Oberlin grad & daughter Sara will get students mobilized, she is a leader at reforming our broken child welfare system, stands up to Luv Guv Heineman, has another neighbor Brad Ashford as mentor, has Anne Boyle getting the word out, etc. She will outwork John Ewing, who is still working as Treasurer (nice full committment to your campaign Jon)

Oh Mander, Obamacare may not be socialized medicine, but you can sure see it from there. BTW, remember when Obama said that you would get to keep your insurance if you liked it? He lied. Remember when he said that premiums would skyrocket in advance of the government price controls? He kind of left that out. Remember when he said that people would love it and it would be super-popular as time went on? Well, Ben Nelson bought that one. Guffaw, guffaw. I guess Ben Nelson is dumber than the average Nebraskan. Or a bigger sucker.

There’s no way Biden steps out in favor of Hillary. First, Biden likes the job and knows where all the bodies are buried. Secondly, Hillary really hasn’t done herself any favors at State. Madeleine Halfbright got more done than Hillary. Thirdly, have you seen pictures of Hillary lately? She doesn’t have 4 more years of this grind in her and to then run for President. She’d be running when she was 69-ish and let’s face it, she hasn’t aged well.

ride a bike, you may want to consider loosening your collar a little. Leavenworth Street cultural hate is sometimes directed at tofu and organic things, but now you’re badmouthing… walkers! Really? Can no true conservatives enjoy walking in the park? Maybe a dog is required to accompany them? Or maybe they need to bring some aluminum cans along and pointedly toss them in with the regular trash.